July 20, 2012

Dark Chocolate Zucchini Brownies {Whole Wheat}

I think I can say that I'm officially back! My "cooking accident" and getting stitches two weeks ago made cooking sort of difficult which took away my desire to even be in the kitchen...I hated that. Finally last night I pulled out my stand mixer, turned on some great cooking music and sufficiently made a mess in the kitchen. I know that I'm enjoying cooking when it takes me more than five minutes to clean up my mess.

For the last two weeks I've been drooling over a recipe from Cookie + Kate. If you have not or are not following her blog, please take some time and do so. Her photos are beautiful and her recipes mouth-watering. She is one of my FAVORITE food bloggers to follow!

I LOVE a good secret ingredient brownie recipe. I mean how perfect are they? Secret nutritional benefits, big reduction in calories (most of the time), added protein all in to a chocolaty brownie (like my black bean or sweet potato brownies). Is there anything more perfect? Moms should be all over this one because it is a great way to play 'hide the veggies' and your kids will never know!

These brownies are full of zucchini, delicious and super gooey like fudge (when eaten warm, which is how I like them)! A little concerned about the taste? Don't be! You've heard of zucchini bread which sometimes has chocolate chips, right? So why not fill it with chocolate chips and make it into a brownie? Yes, genius, I know. But I have to thank others for their genius, so head over to Kate's blog Cookie + Kate for the recipe (Thanks Kate!) and see my notes for my edits below! Enjoy!

My Recipe Notes:
1. I used dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of regular because I like the bittersweet taste and used a 70% dark chocolate bar that I cut into chunks, instead of chocolate chips.
2. I didn't have enough honey, so I used 1/4c honey and 1/4c dark agave nectar. Kate is right, these are a little less sweet than I was hoping for, but still delicious!
3. Since my hubby likes his brownies much sweeter, I made a simple chocolate ganache icing (melted chocolate and cream) and drizzled that over the top for him. This made them much sweeter. You could also make a dark chocolate butter-cream icing as a topping!